Culture / TV

‘Baby Reindeer’ has seized us by the horns and the internet agrees

WORDS Karen Leong    PUBLISHED Mon, 29 Apr 2024 - 12:43 pm

It's been a while since I've been in the mood for a show that leaves you empty. I haven't been weaned off of my diet of frivolous TV yet. As of late, I've had the appetite for a handful of Sex and the City episodes with a fair smattering of Will & Grace in between. This all came to a screeching halt with Baby Reindeer. 

Richard Gadd's latest creation on Netflix has all the trimmings of a promising show: a killer soundtrack, messy relationships and hyper-fixation. The premise is one-part fictional, one part hyper-realised: a stalker on the prowl. The series is produced by Clerkenwell Films BBC, who are responsible for other gimmicky greats like The End of the F*cking World and Misfits. Baby Reindeer lands a touch more macabre and a great deal more warped.

The show takes us through Gadd's own experience being stalked by a woman by the name of Martha who inspires equal sympathy and fear. (A terrible mix, if you ask us.) The meat of the seven-part series deals with matters of justice, victimhood, abuse, and violence, and how the vortex of shame does nothing to mitigate or conflict resolve. I watched entranced to the very bleak end. Our onus seems to be to take and take from the show.

The reception so far has been mixed – with plenty of rabbit holes dissecting the identity of the 'real' Martha. Whether the show engendered more harm than its message and the funny tidbits of life interspersed through were also questioned. There's a whole lot of discourse that's erupted as a result. We've combed through many that echo our very sentiments: Was Gadd too brutal in his approach? Is stand-up dead? How do we move on from here?

Here's a look at how the internet has reacted so far to the viral series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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